Gonyea began working for NPR in 1986, reporting on the automobile industry and labor issues in Detroit.[2]
He was part of the team that in 2000 won the Peabody Award for a series called Lost & Found Sound.[3][4]
Gonyea is a 1978 graduate of Michigan State University, where he worked for the public television station, WKAR-TV.[5][6] He was awarded the 2013 WKAR Public Media Master Award by the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences.